Pakistan launches deadly strikes on Afghanistan

Pakistani bombardment has killed three civilians in eastern Afghanistan, the Taliban authorities said on Monday, with Islamabad saying its forces had targeted "terrorist hubs" along the border.

AFP journalists saw a house in rubble in the village of Patan, where dozens of men gathered for the funerals of the victims of Pakistan's first deadly cross-border strikes since June.

Mubin Khan, a farmer who was injured in the latest bombardment, told AFP: "During the night we were targeted... the house got destroyed."

Khan said three members of his family died.

The Taliban government's deputy spokesman Hamdullah Fitrat said in a post on X that Nurgal district, where Patan is located, came under attack at around 3:00 am (2230 GMT on Sunday).

The strike "completely destroyed" a house, killing three and wounding four members of the same family, the spokesman said.

Two locations in Paktika province were also bombarded, Fitrat said, reporting no casualties.

Pakistan's Information and Broadcasting Ministry confirmed that forces had struck three locations, saying "terrorist hubs" along the border were targeted "based on credible intelligence".

The ministry said "28 terrorists alongside multiple suicide bombers" were killed, a figure rejected by the Taliban government, which said it was "not true".

Taliban government spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid condemned the "aggression" and said that "Afghans will give it an appropriate response".

The strikes follow an attack on a police headquarters in northern Pakistan on Friday that killed at least 31 people including 16 officers.

A local faction, Ittehad-ul-Mujahideen Pakistan, which is linked to the jihadist group Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), claimed responsibility for the attack in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province, which borders Afghanistan.

Pakistan accuses Afghanistan of supporting jihadist groups responsible for deadly attacks on its territory, an allegation the Taliban government in Afghanistan denies.

Pakistan's previous deadly airstrikes in Afghanistan occurred in June and killed around 30 people.

Pakistan said at the time it had targeted a TTP faction and killed fighters, while the Taliban government reported civilian casualties.

The two neighbours have had particularly tense relations since the Taliban authorities returned to power in 2021.

At the beginning of the year, Pakistan stepped up its bombings, including on the capital Kabul.

The deadliest strike, which occurred on March 16, hit a drug treatment hospital in the Afghan capital and killing at least 269 civilians, according to the United Nations.